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NintendoWare Weekly: Monster World IV
While we wait for Sega's "Monster World Collection" to debut the previously Japan-only (and acclaimed!) Monster World IV on PSN and XBLA, Sega went ahead and deposited the game on Wii Virtual Console today, causing even more surprise than other, increasingly rare, VC releases.If you have the Wii Points kicking around, you can build a pseudo-complete Wonder Boy collection now – bolstered by Sega's simultaneous release of the arcade version of Wonder Boy in Monster Land. At least one version of each game in the series is available.In non-interactive news, Dinosaur Office returns to Nintendo Video tomorrow.
Beamdog: No Baldur's Gate for Wii U, bad Nintendo experience to blame
Taking to Twitter once again, Beamdog's Trent Oster has made it painfully clear that Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition will not be ported to the Wii U. When asked about the possibility, Oster told a fan that "we don't do Nintendo development," adding that Beamdog's "previous experience with Nintendo was enough to ensure there will not be another [Nintendo project]."Oster's issues with Nintendo extend from Beamdog's WiiWare port of MDK 2. A 6,000 unit sales requirement before a developer receives payment – combined with a drawn-out certification process – soured Oster's feelings for WiiWare. He also noted that the Wii's "exceptionally low attach rate" is "bad for devs" and essentially makes the Wii "a toy."We contacted Oster for clarification on Beamdog's experience with Nintendo. "It's pretty simple," he said.
NintendoWare Weekly: Colors! 3D
Colors! 3D is the heartwarming story of how an unofficial, homebrew DS app "graduated" into a for-real downloadable 3DS eShop game. It's also an app that allows you to draw and paint on your 3DS, and share your drawings online with the Colors! 3D gallery.Other new content on 3DS this week includes a video interview with Warren Spector about the two new Epic Mickey games, and "The Rifle's Spiral" by The Shins (available tomorrow).
Club Nintendo offers You, Me, the Cubes, Excitebike, and Metal Torrent
If you've got a bunch of Club Nintendo Coins burning a hole in your virtual pocket, you could do worse than spend them on this month's selection of downloadable games. For April, Nintendo is offering Kenji Eno's WiiWare puzzle game You, Me, and the Cubes; the WiiWare bike retread Excitebike World Rally, and a 3DS-only download of DSiWare shmup Metal Torrent (all right, they can't all be winners).As always, these games are also available through your console's online store for regular money, but you have the extra option of trading your fake Club Nintendo currency this month.[Thanks, Adam!]
NintendoWare Weekly: Mutant Mudds demo
The most noteworthy digital release this week on Nintendo systems is a demo of a game that came out in February. Yes, that means it's a really slow week, but to be fair Mutant Mudds is very worth trying.DSiWare's sole release is '90s Pool, which, as far as we can tell, is "'90s" only because the words "'90s Pool" are on the top screen at all times. Where's Luke Perry? Where's the Ace of Base cover music?
NintendoWare Weekly: Zombie Slayer Diox
Another original release comes to 3DS eShop this week, in the form of UFO Interactive's (other) rock vs. zombie game, Zombie Slayer Diox.If actual games don't interest you today, free entertainment abounds, with music videos on Nintendo Video and a Swapnote "inspired by" Uggie the dog going out to everyone using that delightful free program. Why, yes, we are checking our Swapnotes while writing this.
Frogger: Hyper Arcade Edition is official, downloadable this spring
Frogger: Hyper Arcade Edition is officially a thing, coming to XBLA, PSN and WiiWare this spring. Hyper Arcade Edition updates Frogger's classic core mechanics and adds new game modes, including Tile Capture, Battle Royale, Freak Out and four-player matches against friends or the CPU.This new Frogger also totes a variety of different skins, with the version's default neon, original 8-bit sprites, and classic Castlevania and Contra skins. As noted previously, Hyper Arcade Edition is in development from Zombie Studios, the team behind Blacklight: Retribution. We're still holding out for the realistic 3D mode with frog-et launchers.%Gallery-151091%
NintendoWare Weekly: Game Gear, Samurai Shodown IV
It's the Virtual Consoliest day of 2012! Between the Wii and 3DS, there are four new Virtual Console games you can buy today. On 3DS, of course, that means Game Gear support has arrived. On Wii, it means Samurai Shodown IV, originally for Neo Geo.There's also some free entertainment to be found on the 3DS Nintendo Video service, where a 3D Kid Icarus anime is probably being delivered to you over SpotPass right this second.
NintendoWare Weekly: Punch-Out!!, King of Fighters '97
We have a coveted double Virtual Console event today, in which emulated retro games appear on both 3DS and Wii. On 3DS, you can experience the thrill of being beaten severely by enormous people in Punch-Out!! And on Wii ... pretty much the same thing (beatings, enormous humans) from a different perspective in King of Fighters '97.DSiWare now features Zuma's Revenge, just the latest in PopCap's widespread assault on every platform ever.
NintendoWare Weekly: Crush3D demo, Metroid
Nintendo's actually doing a pretty good job with these 3DS demos! Today on the eShop, you'll be able to get a sample of the upcoming puzzle adventure Crush3D. You know, in case our preview wasn't quite vividly descriptive enough to paint an accurate picture in your brain.If you missed the Ambassador Program, you can now buy the NES classic Metroid on 3DS as well.
NintendoWare Weekly: Nintendogs + Cats demo, 2 Fast 4 Gnomz
If we were to design a Nintendogs + Cats demo, it would go something like this: you walk into a virtual pet store to meet a new puppy, wearing an adorable bow. The proprietor lets the pup out of its cage to play with you, and the dog can't hide its excitement to run and play with all the toys in the room. It barks happily and licks the screen to simulate licking your face.Its barks sound just enough like your name, but just different enough, that you question what you heard.Then, after you choose to exit the demo, the virtual puppy goes back into its cage, whimpering. The last thing you see before you close the 3DS lid is your puppy's paw up against the screen. Occasionally you'll receive a note via SpotPass telling you that the little scamp still looks out the window whenever a car the same model as yours drives by.We didn't design the real demo.
Retro City Rampage running wild on Xbox, Wii, PS3, Vita, and PC in May
Vblank Entertainment's long-awaited, open-world 8-bit parody crime game, Retro City Rampage, will finally be let loose in May, creator Brian Provinciano told Joystiq. It'll be rampaging across a few new platforms -- in addition to the known XBLA and WiiWare versions, Provinciano announced plans on the PlayStation Blog to release the game on PS3 and PlayStation Vita, and shared plans on his own site to release it PC. He's aiming for a simultaneous May release for them all.In fact, you can pre-order that PC version right now at retrocityrampage.com, and get bonuses including a mini soundtrack download, a digital manual and 20% off of Fangamer's Retro City Rampage collection*.And yes, Provinciano is still making all of these versions pretty much on his own. "Maxime [Trépanier]'s been doing art and the music guys are still doing some polish but I'm still juggling everything else myself," Provinciano told Joystiq. Add publishing to that list of duties as well. "I'm self publishing on PlayStation," Provinciano said. "Sony's fantastic that they allow you to do that."Once this epic undertaking is finally completed, Provinciano hopes to take on something smaller-scale. "I've got many ideas and definitely want to do more open-world games," he said, "but right after RCR I will take a breather and work on something small and different. Hopefully something that takes maybe eight weeks instead of eight years."%Gallery-148026%[*Disclosure: I have worked with Fangamer on a currently available product.]
Hulu Plus app now downloadable on Wii
Bored with experiencing Hulu Plus through the same old ... interfaces? Get rid of that Hulu Plus ennui with Hulu Plus on Wii. Nintendo announced that the service is now available through the Wii in the US as of today.Users can download the Hulu app through the Wii Shop Channel for free, and then subscribe for $7.99 a month to watch television shows and movies. Through the first month of the app's availability, new users can redeem a two-week free trial of the service.A 3DS version is due "later this year." We apologize for the "Hulu Plus ennui" joke and the lengths to which we had to go to make it.
NintendoWare Weekly: BurgerTime World Tour, Maru's Mission
The XBLA/PSN reimagining of BurgerTime needed a little more time on the grill before hitting WiiWare, but now MonkeyPaw Games is ready to serve BurgerTime World Tour to a hungry audience on a plastic tray all right these food metaphors are falling apart. We'll have to warn you about this week's 3DS eShop game, lest you get unreasonably excited. Maru's Mission is not about Maru the cat. It is a cute-looking ninja action game, though. But not about Maru. Sorry!%Gallery-146918%
NintendoWare Weekly: Mutant Mudds, Mario & Sonic, Flush the Goldfish
As promised, another 3DS demo is available on the eShop, this time for Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games. It may not have zombies, but then, it may have Waluigi. Renegade Kid's Mutant Mudds, its first self-published project, is also up on the eShop this week, offering challenging platforming and shooting and some dramatic 3D effects.DSiWare features a sequel to the indie game Flipper; though if you played it, you still won't recognize Flipper 2: Flush the Goldfish. The original was an isometric puzzle game about reshaping environments ... and the sequel is a side-scrolling action game that uses one contextual button!%Gallery-145712%
NintendoWare Weekly: Resident Evil Revelations demo, Stonekeep
3DS demos have finally arrived in North America! Or, at least, they will in a couple of hours when the eShop updates. You'll have the opportunity to check out Capcom's classic-style Resident Evil Revelations at no risk -- other than the usual risk of terror-soaked pants, we suppose. In WiiWare news, remember when Interplay was going to revive Stonekeep for WiiWare? Well, that's happened. You can see the results above.
All WiiWare demos return to the Wii Shop Channel
In late 2009, Nintendo put five demos for WiiWare games on the Wii Shop Channel. Inexplicably, it was a limited-time deal and they all went away on January 31. Then, in late 2010 (and also inexplicably) the program returned, and WiiWare demos started trickling in at the rate of one a week. These were also intended as limited-time offers, which continued not to make any damn sense. Now, in the crowning moment of weirdness for the service, all 50 demos that were previously offered in North America are now available on the Wii Shop in a "demo" section found within the selection of WiiWare "genres," with no explanation at all. Of all the bizarre moves related to this service, this is the one we can most wholeheartedly support. Go try some demos! Lilt Line, And Yet It Moves, Bit.Trip Beat, and more are there to sample. Use your downloads to send Nintendo the incredibly obvious message that people like demos.
NintendoWare Weekly: Zen Pinball 3D, 101 Pinball World
Well, this is awkward. Zen Pinball 3D launches on the 3DS eShop today ... and so does the DSiWare game 101 Pinball World. If you really love handheld virtual pinball, this is like the best day ever! Elsewhere, The Learning Company and Gamelion bring the third installment of the surprisingly episodic WiiWare Carmen Sandiego series. And if you care to check Nintendo Video on your 3DS this Saturday, you can get a 3D Kirby cartoon.
Nintendo purportedly advising developers to not publish digital sales figures
Hoping to gloat about however many copies of [insert Nintendo title here] that you've sold? Think again. Richard Hill-Whittall, the owner and director of Icon Games Entertainment, recently passed a few sales numbers over to Gamasutra for publishing -- at the time, it hardly seemed like anything that'd raise a red flag. As it turns out, however, Nintendo reportedly pinged him and asked him to remove the numbers; according to Richard, the Big N doesn't actually condone the sharing of digital shares figures for any developer that's self-publishing WiiWare and downloadable DS titles. It's certainly a jarring stance to take, and it's probably not the wisest move in the grand scheme of things. As he points out, budding developers hoping to pick up funding will likely have quite the difficult time without having similar figures from fellow devs to share. Hard to say if the company will change its ways due to the backlash, but those interested in the full spiel should give that source link a visit.
Nintendo tells developers not to share digital sales numbers
Richard Hill-Whittall is the owner and director of Icon Games Entertainment, and his company has released several games in the last year for various platforms, including WiiWare. He recently shared some sales numbers over on Gamasutra, but was asked by Nintendo to take the numbers for its platforms down. According to Hill-Whittall, Nintendo doesn't allow developers to share digital sales numbers for self-published WiiWare and downloadable DS titles. That's an interesting tack to take, and Hill-Whittall argues that it hurts smaller developers who might need to make those sales numbers known in order to secure financing or plan out their business. He doesn't see it as surprising, however, because Nintendo doesn't allow developers to change their prices or offer demos or promotions either, which are all tactics that Microsoft, Sony, and other digital publishers have used to pick up lots of digital sales before. Obviously, not everyone will want to share sales data, and Nintendo itself must see this data as valuable information to be protected. A restriction on sharing the data, says Hill-Whittall, could be fatal for a smaller developer like his, especially if they rely on Nintendo's platform alone.
